apachectl - Apache HTTP Server Control Interface

apachectl is a front end to the Apache HyperText
Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server. It is designed to help the
administrator control the functioning of the Apache
httpd daemon.

The apachectl script can operate in two modes.
First, it can act as a simple front-end to the httpd
command that simply sets any necessary environment variables and
then invokes httpd, passing through any command line
arguments. Second, apachectl can act as a SysV init
script, taking simple one-word arguments like start,
restart, and stop, and translating them
into appropriate signals to httpd.

If your Apache installation uses non-standard paths, you will
need to edit the apachectl script to set the
appropriate paths to the httpd binary. You can also
specify any necessary httpd command line arguments.
See the comments in the script for details.

The apachectl script returns a 0 exit value on
success, and >0 if an error occurs. For more details, view
the comments in the script.

Only the SysV init-style options are defined here. Other arguments
are defined on the httpd manual page.

start

Start the Apache httpd daemon. Gives an error if it
is already running. This is equivalent to apachectl -k
start.

stop

Stops the Apache httpd daemon. This is equivalent to
apachectl -k stop.

restart

Restarts the Apache httpd daemon. If the daemon is
not running, it is started. This command automatically checks the
configuration files as in configtest before initiating
the restart to make sure the daemon doesn't die. This is equivalent
to apachectl -k restart.

fullstatus

Displays a full status report from mod_status.
For this to work, you need to have mod_status enabled
on your server and a text-based browser such as lynx
available on your system. The URL used to access the status report
can be set by editing the STATUSURL variable in the
script.

status

Displays a brief status report. Similar to the
fullstatus option, except that the list of requests
currently being served is omitted.

graceful

Gracefully restarts the Apache httpd daemon. If the
daemon is not running, it is started. This differs from a normal
restart in that currently open connections are not aborted. A side
effect is that old log files will not be closed immediately. This
means that if used in a log rotation script, a substantial delay may
be necessary to ensure that the old log files are closed before
processing them. This command automatically checks the configuration
files as in configtest before initiating the
restart to make sure Apache doesn't die. This is equivalent to
apachectl -k graceful.

graceful-stop

Gracefully stops the Apache httpd daemon.
This differs from a normal stop in that currently open connections are not
aborted. A side effect is that old log files will not be closed immediately.
This is equivalent to apachectl -k graceful-stop.

configtest

Run a configuration file syntax test. It parses the configuration
files and either reports Syntax Ok
or detailed information about the particular syntax error. This is
equivalent to apachectl -t.

The following option was available in earlier versions but has been removed.

startssl

To start httpd with SSL support, you should edit
your configuration file to include the relevant directives and then
use the normal apachectl start.

Notice:This is not a Q&A section. Comments placed here should be pointed towards suggestions on improving the documentation or server, and may be removed again by our moderators if they are either implemented or considered invalid/off-topic. Questions on how to manage the Apache HTTP Server should be directed at either our IRC channel, #httpd, on Freenode, or sent to our mailing lists.